Sales Coaching to Get Referrals without being Pushy

It's not your fault; but the way you've been trained to ask for referrals is pushy, obnoxious, and downright embarrassing. It does nothing to further your relationship and you hate it and your clients hate it. You've been trained to ask real clever questions like, who are the three couples you'd invite to a dinner party. Choke, puke, gag. If you're actually using these highly manipulative tactics stop it and stop it right now. There isn't any reason for you to stoop to these high pressure approaches to get the referrals you need.

The biggest thing for you to remember about referrals is that you have to earn them. Just because someone penned their name to some paper work doesn't mean you have in any way shape or form earned a referral. You earn a referral when you exceed a customer's expectations and that takes a little time.

There are ways to accelerate the process and make it something they voluntarily do without any hesitation. Why do you recommend someone to the people you know? Isn't it because in your opinion they provided: more value than the competition, service with integrity, more quality, etc. If you take away nothing else from this article take this one idea and never forget it. Whatever everyone else is doing don't do that. That definitely includes approaching referrals the way you've been trained.

Provided you are capable of exceeding your customer's expectations, one of the quickest ways to accelerate the referral process is to make something about your service so valuable your customers will want to share it with their friends. Look outside your industry to other service providers who market themselves really well, and adapt it to your situation. A powerful example that you're probably familiar with is viral marketing.

Websites like YouTube and MySpace are prime examples of viral marketing. These websites get tons of traffic because they engage and entertain the visitors. Those visiting these websites blast all their friends directing them back to the website. You're probably a little confused about what the heck these websites have to do with you, referrals, and insurance sales at this point.

It's an easy connection that you can make that will lead to tons of unasked for referrals. You simply create something that your clients value as critical information, highly entertaining, or an exclusive opportunity. Then if you've done your job right and you let them know that you encourage them to share this with the people they know perhaps even developing a fun incentive for doing so that gets them something more; you've got a viral referral system bringing qualified leads into your sales funnel. Geez, stop thinking like a boring insurance sales person.

Article Source: http://www.article-voip.com

About the author: Cheryl A. Clausen can help you get unstuck. Enhance your Sales Techniques, get her free analysis. Increase your sales today through Sales Coaching, look here.

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